I popped over to the national park very briefly in the morning just to walk around the Swamp Loop a bit, although I couldn't spend very long. I didn't see anything particularly interesting but you never know. The only fairly common target species that I missed was hanging parrot. I missed pittas too but needed to go further to have a decent chance. The bus left from just down the road that turns off at school, by the row of shops. Kuala Tahan has a disproportionately large school because it provides basic education for the Orang Asli children in all the nearby villages. It's about 70km to Jerantut which is about an hour and a half on the bus and and easy direct bus, though only twice a day at 10 and 5 and 8 and ... read more

18th Jan: I enjoyed my hostel breakfast out on the balcony looking out over the mountains behind Ipoh. I got chatting to a guy who had been staying in my dorm, we booth commented on how we liked the chilled out vibe Ipoh has going on. I was really jealous when he was telling me about travelling to Thailand in the 80s, and how beautiful and different it was back then. I really wish I could time travel. I almost didn't make it out of the hostel because when I got to the bottom of the stairs the metal door was locked. Luckily, there were some keys in reception so I could unlock the door. It took about ten minutes to walk to the station and I waited for my train, which was on time. The ... read more

Kool and Krazy Kuala Lumpur For a change of direction, this next trip will transport me across the vast Pacific and via Seoul, South Korea. Haven’t been in that exotic city in a few years, but I do recall the airport being a delight. But first things first and that includes a red-eye flight to Detroit. I tried to sleep during the day in preparation for this red-eye but alas, no joy. So by the time I settled my butt into an aisle seat, I was more than ready to close my eyes and doze for the next 4 hours until landing in Michigan. It also happens to be daylight savings weekend, which even further screws with my internal clock! But apparently the airline gods were not feeling friendly towards yours truly and my seatmate had ... read more

So May 2015 was my beautiful fiancé's first experience of Asia. Our plan was Kuala Lumpur for a couple of days followed by Cambodia and Thailand. We arrived in Kuala Lumpur after a long trip from Mount Gambier to Melbourne by car then a 9 hour flight. We caught a train from the airport into Sahabat Guesthouse at Bukit Bintang and spent our first day exploring despite being exhausted. It was Todds first train ride in almost 30 years! LolWe freshened up at the Guesthouse before heading off for lunch at my all time favourite Dragon-i in Pavillion Shopping centre. With our eyes bigger than our stomach we overordered and ate until we almost burst. Afterwards we went shopping. I stopped in at Sephora and started shopping up a storm. Being overtired I completely stuffed up ... read more

Sunday, 21st September 2014 With the clear blue skies that greeted me, I finally had a chance for an early morning swim at the hotel's beautiful pool today. This was followed by my favourite soya bean and porridge breakfast at the Pavilion Shopping Mall. When it was time for me to depart to the airport for my afternoon flight home, I decided to ride on the airport express train that would bring me to KLIA Terminal 2 in 33 minutes. This was a nice welcome change from the exorbitant taxi fares to the airport. I was impressed by the new terminal which came with a rather useful shopping mall. Since I was early for my flight, I had ample time to make use of the complimentary access to the Plaza Premium Lounge. This was rather useful ... read more

Saturday, 20th September 2014 The great things that I discovered during my recent trip to Kuala Lumpur :- 1) It is very possible to walk the entire length from Bukit Bintang to KLCC via comfortable elevated & underground walkways. 2) Walking is also the best way from Puduraya Bus Station (aka Pudu Sentral) to Bukit Bintang where most of the hotels and shopping facilities in the city are found. 3) The Nu Sentral Shopping Mall is now opened for business – providing seamless connection for passengers transferring from the Monorail to KL Sentral Station. 4) The new KLIA Terminal 2 comes with a shopping precinct – providing a suburban (mid-range) shopping experience in an airport environment. After breakfast this morning, I made my 4-hour descend via the North-South Highway towards the city of Kuala Lumpur. The ... read more

Our day began with a morning run in the City Center Park. We thought by getting up early, that we would beat the heat. Ummmm.... Not so much. It was plus 30 and 100% humidity by 9:00. Midday found us by the pool at our hotel for a much needed cooling off swim. We did a bit of walking around as we do most days, just observing the area from street level. We both agree that you can observe more detail this way as opposed to taking a taxi or riding the subway, also the smells of the street are a large part of the Asia experience. We are staying in a bustling, well developed part of the city in a beautiful 5 star Marriott Hotel. The area is popular with Middle Eastern and Arabic nationalities ... read more

During the late 18th and 19th centuries, Great Britain established colonies and protectorates in the area of current Malaysia; these were occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1945. In 1948, the British-ruled territories on the Malay Peninsula formed the Fe...more history